Set of 2 Elegant Antique Hand-Colored Fern Prints, Mountain Fern, 1806-1809

This is an original set of 2 antique hand-colored copper engravings of shield ferns, sold together, from Christian Schkuhr's survey of the ferns and fern allies printed at Wittenberg between 1806 and 1809. Aspidium Oreopteris over two sheets, pars inferior and pars superior. Neither sheet shows the complete frond on its own. The 2 sheets are Aspidium Oreopteris, pars inferior and Aspidium Oreopteris, pars superior. They are the same size, printed from the same press and colored by the same hand, so they frame and hang as one group.

Schkuhr published this work himself at Wittenberg, in nine instalments between 1806 and 1809, as the fern volume of his treatment of the cryptogams. He drew, engraved and colored the plates, which is unusual: most botanical authors of the period handed their drawings to a professional engraver and a coloring workshop. The volume carries 221 plates numbered to 173 with lettered supplements, and is listed at Pritzel 8205.

This is an engraving on copper with original hand coloring, printed on the bluish paper that the first impressions of the work were issued on. The engraved line carries the structure and the watercolor carries the color, applied by hand so that no two copies of the plate are quite alike. The plate is decorative as well as scientific. Early botanical engravings of ferns have been a staple of interior decoration since the Victorian fern craze, and an original sheet of this date, hand-colored and engraved by the botanist himself, carries considerably more weight than the later reproductions that fill the market.

Light uneven toning, browner towards the edges. Handling soiling along the edges of both sheets. Light foxing in the margins of one of the two sheets. Slight wear at the corners of one of the two sheets.

This is an original antique print, not a modern reproduction. This item is sold unframed.